It's Only a Fairy Tale
by baldragnarok16
Summary: She always believed that her life was like a fairytale, where her perfect prince would take her away from the world. She never never suspected that her prince would be just as flawed as she was. InoSasu


Never thought I'd write something for this pairing….

On request from InoSakuShine I present to you a Sasino one-shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

**It's Only a Fairy Tale**

Every ninja needed something to work towards; something to hope for at the end of the day. And for one Yamanka Ino, that one thing was a fairytale. When she was a young girl, before she had attended the ninja academy, her father would tuck her in at night and tell her fairy tales; stories where there was always a damsel in distress that was rescued by her knight in shining armor.

And afterwards, when her father had kissed her good night and shut the lights off, Ino would dream of being the prettiest damsel of all, trapped in a dangerous enemy stronghold. And then her knight would come, the strongest ninja of all, and rescue her just in time from the villains. Then, they would live happily ever after as Hokage and wife with perfect little kids.

While she was in the academy, she came to realize that her knight in shining armor had to be Uchiha Sasuke. He was smart, strong, and, in her opinion at least, perfect in every single way. And so everything she did, said, wore, or dreamt was for Sasuke; so that one day he would realize that he was meant to be her beloved husband. But, as fate would have it, Sasuke would have nothing to do with her. But Ino had never given up hope, never stopped trying to persuade him to think otherwise.

It was only now, as she looked at the shell of the man she knew, that she came to realize that he was never meant to be hers. As she kept guard over his sleeping body in the dank prison cell he was being kept in, she couldn't help but cry for all that she had sacrificed for a dream that would never come to fruition. And then there was Sakura; whose very name made Ino's blood boil.

She had attempted to ruin all of Ino's plans, even after Ino gave Sakura a sense of self-purpose that she had never before felt. She tried to steal Sasuke for her own reasons, for which Ino did not care about. Because, in her opinion, no reason could be more important than to make sure your dreams come to fruition.

And then, to make matters even worse, she got over her "love" for the Uchiha and started dating none other than Uzumaki Naruto; the boy that Sakura and Ino would make fun of and spread rumors about behind his back. She grinned maliciously as she recalled just exactly how they came to be.

It was at a party hosted by Kiba in honor of the last of the rookie nine being promoted to jounin level, complete with blaring music, pot, spiked beverages, and no parental supervision whatsoever.

It only took a few drinks for Ino to begin to lose her edge, and so, like any person would do, she decided she would sleep it off. Kiba would understand if he found her in one of his family's beds the next morning sleeping off a hangover. And so, when she finally found opened the door to the only room in the entire house where she could barely hear the blaring music, she found herself witnessing something so horrible she barely noticed the reek of beer and marijuana that was stinking up the room; Sakura and Naruto making love in the queen sized bed in the middle of the room..

And the worst part of it all was the fact that they didn't seem to notice she was there and kept on, well, expressing their love for each other. Ino, disgusted at the sight, slammed the door and then promptly left the house, forgetting the fact that she was too drunk to even know where home was.

But, by some miracle, she had made it home safely. The next day she had found out that Kiba's older sister had come home in the middle of the party from a strenuous mission and went ballistic on Kiba when she discovered two teens under the influence of drugs having sex in her bed.

When she had heard, Ino couldn't help but burst out into a malicious fit of laughter.

'_It serves that pink haired slut right,' _she had thought at the time. _'Now she'll never be able to get my Sasuke.' _And, as chance would have it, Sakura became pregnant. Ino, at hearing this news, instantly left to go see Sakura, hoping for a chance to see her rival done and out.

But Sakura wasn't crying, nor was she upset for that matter. In fact, she seemed happy at the prospect of giving birth to Naruto's child. She had told Ino that she had begun to think of Sasuke less and less since he left Konoha and more and more of Naruto.

This completely upset the balance of Ino's world. Sakura had always been the wicked witch that Ino had to battle to reach her prince, Sasuke. But now, with Sakura's new love interest, what would happen to Ino's fairytale? Would she be able to keep on living it without a villain?

And, after fighting with herself for weeks on the issue, she decided that she could not live in her disillusioned fairytale any longer. And so she tried living a "normal" life. She began to isolate herself from everyone around her and began to focus solely on her work.

Until a few days ago that is; the day when Uchiha Sasuke had been successfully retrieved from Otogakure no Sato. When word spread of the Uchiha's return, Ino had wept; not in sadness or in relief, but in frustration.

She had only been able to forget about her "knight in shining armor" and here he was again, back in her life.

"You know, tears do you no justice," remarked the man in the cell Ino was guarding, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Shut up you bastard!" Ino shouted at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "If it weren't for you…" she spat at him, but found she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Yes?" he prompted as he snidely smirked.

"I don't know," she admitted aggressively, turning her back to him and crossing her arms. "Just don't bother me; it's a pain in the ass that I have to guard you for the night without you acting like dick," she commanded venomously.

"You don't really mean that," Sasuke responded calmly, and Ino could feel her heart begin to beat faster.

"Yes, I do," she retorted forcefully. "You screwed us all over for your own twisted plan and now you're depriving me of a well deserved rest, so just shut up so I won't have to kill you by the end of the night."

"But you still love me," Sasuke insisted even more forcefully as, with much effort, he stood up onto his feet, still aching from his recent defeat at the hands of his old teammates, and walked closer to the bars that held him. "And don't try to deny it, just the fact that you'd talk to me so venomously proves it."

Ino whirled around and punched him as hard as she could through the iron bars, sending him back into the cement wall that served as a wall.

"You're wrong," she shouted. "You're wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! How could I ever love **you**; who killed my teammate _(even if he wasn't the strongest, he was still like my brother…my safeguard)_ and tried to murder the future husband of my best friend _(is that what she is now? Has Sakura become my best friend after all of this time_)?" she screamed at the man behind the bars. "The man, no, the **boy** I loved is long gone. He was killed by the villain two and a half years ago!" At this Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the angry, panting kunoichi as he rose back on to his feet.

"The villain; what in the name of God are you talking about?" he questioned as he once again tried approaching the enraged young woman.

"You were supposed to be my prince Sasuke! Why can't you see that? You were supposed to rescue me from everything and live with me happily ever after. But you went ahead and kill the boy I fell in love with by throwing away all that you held dear! That was not the boy who was to be my prince; he was supposed to defend his home with pride, not throw it away like garbage! And now that my entire future's been destroyed, there's nothing left; all because of you!" she exasperatedly explained, tears falling like rivulets from her eyes. After suffering for so long in solitude, she finally let someone in on her life's dream; except the person she told was the very one she taught herself to detest for the past year.

"Life's not a fairy tale Ino; people don't stay the same throughout their entire lives. They change; just as stories do over time," Sasuke said softly. "I may not be the twelve year old you loved, but now I'm stronger and wiser; I can realize when I've made a mistake."

"Do you regret abandoning us?" Ino whispered.

"Every day I'm haunted by my battle against Naruto at the Valley of the End," Sasuke answered sincerely. "Every moment that I trained was so that I would never have to do that again; so that I'd never have to follow the path of someone else and kill the people close to me to do it," he confessed as he looked down at his battle scarred, calloused hands.

"Isn't that only a fairy tale?" Ino asked. "A happily ever after where no one close to you dies?"

"Of course not; I fully acknowledge the fact that the people I love will eventually die. I just won't be the one to kill them," he answered wearily. And for the first time since she met him, Ino felt his self confidence level drop. She could finally see how soul weary Sasuke truly was; how tired he was of the world.

_'It was only a fairy tale after all,' _Ino remorsefully thought. _'I've been living in a lie my entire life; my prince was never as perfect as I thought, nor was the "wicked dragon" so wicked. But what is a normal life the; one without any impossible dreams or false realities? If that's the case, then who here in this world is actually living a normal life?'_ "Sasuke, what's your dream for the future?" Ino asked out of the blue.

"I have none," he answered truthfully. "Itachi's dead, so I have nothing more to live for in this world. And you and I both know that I'm going to be killed on charges of high treason."

"But, what if you could live? What would you want?" Ino persisted.

"I…I truly don't know," he answered. "But why would I tell you anyway?" Sasuke answered.

"Because, Sasuke, you've always been my dream. But now that you're going to die, there's no place for me to go; my life will have no meaning after you're gone. No matter how cliché it sounds, it's true," Ino confessed. "My entire life's been a fairy tale, and I can't let it go as easily as you may think. Even after all of the horrible things you've done, Sasuke, sometimes I still dream that you'll come and rescue me and I'd fall in love with you all over again."

"I know the feeling; after all, isn't revenge the ideal fairy tale? That you can gain eternal happiness by killing the ones who've wronged you; which is a lie, I'll have you know," Sasuke empathized. A loud creaking sound resonated throughout the room as Ino sent a pulse throughout the bars, causing them to descend back into the ground from whence they came.

"I don't want you to die," Ino whispered. "I want to run away and live with you forever," she confessed as she gazed into the coal black eyes of the battered Uchiha.

"It's only a fairy tale Ino, and if you go through with it you'll regret it the rest of your life," Sasuke replied. "Trust me on this; you want to stay in Konoha and keep on living for the ones that have died for you. Now close the doors so that I won't be tempted any longer," he calmly commanded.

"After this," Ino replied as he she walked towards Sasuke and pressed her lips against his. And for several minutes they stood lip locked in the dank prison cells of Konohagakure no Sato. And as they broke for air, Ino and Sasuke, for the first time in their lives, began to see the other for who they truly were.

"Even if life is nothing but a hyped-up fairy tale, I'll live it like I would the truth," Ino stated confidently as she held the man she loved in her arms. "And, even if I can't hold them for long, I'll grasp on to my dreams with both hands."

"That's very wise, coming from the woman who used to be a blond ditz," Sasuke commented. His smirk never left his face even as Ino whipped her hand across his face.

"Bastard," she playfully insulted as she stepped back and reactivated the doors. "Goodbye, Sasuke. May you find your happily ever after in the after life." And as she walked away from the Uchiha as her shift ended, she brushed the tears from her eyes so that her replacement would not see her at her weakest.

And as Sasuke saw who it was that replaced Ino, he gave the new guard a sad smile.

"So, Naruto, do you believe in fairy tales?"

_End_


End file.
